5 Introduced and Invasive Species That Are Good for the Ecosystem

On this channel i have made a lot of videos on introduced and invasive species. I think it's an important topic to talk about as invasive species can cause major damages and are one of the leading causes of recent extinctions. In some cases introduced species can have a possitive effect on non native ecosytems and even though invasive species can ruin ecosytems, they can also help non native ecosytems. In this video i will be going through some of these species as i will be going through 5 introduced and ivasive species that can benefit the ecosystem.

Attributions

Peacock bass images:
budak
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Brian Gratwicke
(CC BY 2.0)
ekenitr
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
Florida Fish and Wildlife
(CC BY-ND 2.0)
Leszek Leszczynski
(CC BY 2.0)
Amazon Outreach
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
SimonovichF
(CC BY-SA 4.0)

Tamarisk tree images:
Forest and Kim Starr
(CC BY 2.0)
Matthijs Quaijtaal
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Anita Gould
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
Javier martinlo
(CC BY-SA 4.0)

European green crab images:
Lars Behnke
(CC BY-SA 2.0)
Danny S. 1993
(CC BY 2.0)
John Haslam
(CC BY 2.0)
Hans Hillewaert
(CC BY-SA 4.0)
Catching The Eye

Aldabra giant tortoise images:
Charles (Chuck) Peterson
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
Brent Moore
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
belgianchocolate
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
Brian Henderson
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
Yulia Kolosova
(CC BY 4.0)

Eurasian beaver images:
Artur Rydzewski
(CC BY 2.0)
Cloudtail the Snow Leopard
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Klaudiusz Muchowski
(CC BY-SA 3.0)

Peacock bass footage:
Island Life Fishing
Bryan TheCEO
JR aquarium
Florida Bass TV
FishinFlorida

Tamarix footage:
Rafa Mollà
Doug Von Gausig
Sean Anderson

European green crab footage:
Gonzalo Mucientes
Alison McKellar
Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
(CC BY-SA 3.0 NL)

Aldabra giant tortoise footage:
John Strangelove
Rod Kennedy

Eurasian beaver footage:
Tom Hansen
AlfAdek
Klaus Wojtek
Rob Zweers
(CC BY-ND 2.0)
Lubo Ondrasko
(CC BY 3.0)
Robert Meier

Silver carp footage:
Outsider Outdoors

Cane toad footage:
Dylan O'Donnell

Paraná River image:
Börkur Sigurbjörnsson
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Invasive fish florida images:
Jan Stefka
(CC BY-NC 2.0)
Florida Fish and Wildlife
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Tamarix beetle image:
J. N. Stuart
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Purple marsh crab images:
Esuglia
(CC BY-SA 3.0)
Virginia Sea Grant
(CC BY-ND 2.0)

Blue crab image:
Pauline Walsh Jacobson
(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Ebony tree images:
S Molteno
(CC BY-SA 4.0)

[thenerdbeast]

Honorary mention: Dandelions. When America was colonized the seeds of many crops were brought over and among them were the seeds of weeds including dandelions. However dandelions aren't considered invasive because they have assimilated almost flawlessly into the American landscape and even provide nutrition for herbivores without any downsides as they don't take resources away from native plants.

[mitchellskene]

Would be interesting to see you do a video on creatures that are technically invasive/not native, but have been in that location for so long, they're considered native. For example, The Dingo. If you know your history, you'd know Dingos were only introduced to Australia about five thousand years ago, give or take a couple hundred years. Plus this could be one of those rare videos where one of the creatures listed, is a human being lol.

[Mooffgamesgamer]

It's pretty interesting with how some invasive species can be very much needed for a ecosystem that needs organisms to do a niche that is similar to native or extinct species in the environment.

[mjkhan]

This episode highlights something important for anyone wanting to understand the classification of non-native organisms. The term "invasive" only really applies to those that have actually had a very negative impact on native species and the ecosystem. If it's not that impactful, it's simply referred to as a "foreign" or "introduced" species like the ones mentioned here that have become beneficial

[gabrielb]

There's a Siberian project in Russia that aims to restore the ecosystem that since the extinction of the mammoths is suffering, they are introducing various big herbivores to take down the trees and restore the marshes that are way more efficient in carbon retention, this is worth a entire video.
Also who knows maybe if the genetics manage to revive the mammoths somehow maybe they will have a habitat to live in.

[LordFoxxyFoxington]

A number of years ago Wallabies escaped from private zoos here in the UK, not only have they thrived in the years since but they have also had an extremely positive impact on the countryside as a whole. So much so that we are making no attempt to remove them, they belong here now.

[hitlersmissingtesticle]

Another honorary mention is the thornbite deadnettle, those little purple flowers that covered whole yards here in the southern US, while invasive they’re not a threat because they help the bee population quiet a bit.

[maxhaly]

The Dingos of Austrailia were brought here by the ancestors of the Aboriginees (Sorry if I butcher the spelling) people centuries ago, so they can technically be considered invasive, but now they're generally accepted as a 'native' species of the island continent, since they kinda filled the role of top land predator after the Thylacine was wiped out.

[Educristianzilla]

I've heard of the peacock bass being good in Florida but I never knew crabs were good for some ecosystems after I heard about how many crabs are bad invaders in many areas.

[TheRusty]

A few others:
Domesticated Rock Doves (pigeons) were introduced to North America in the 1600's. They very quickly established feral populations and are now a large part of most urban biomasses. But they're much less common outside urban areas. Large buildings are just as nest-friendly and less predated than natural cliff faces, and it turns out the pigeons, despite being larger, are actually outcompeted by native dove species in the wild. So they follow humans from city to city. They - along with rodents like mice and rats - make up the bottom of the urban ecosystems; rock doves have in fact been absolutely essential to the survival and recovery of small predatory birds such as falcons and some hawks.

Feral horses are much like the Eurasian beaver; an endemic but locally-extinct species in the Americas. They were reintroduced in the 1500's (accidentally, of course) and quickly made themselves at home, despite persecution from humans both for re-domestication and to get them off pasture land. The land the horses favor did quite well with them on it since it's an ecosystem that evolved to have horses as part of it. Unfortunately due to that persecution, American horses have bene pushed to more marginal desert land, which is less suited to them and more fragile, making htem something of a problem there.

Zebra Mussels, despite often being included as "worst invasives" are actually quite good, ecologically; their bad rep comes from the burden they place on industrial infrastructure, rather than their ecological impact. Much as with the horse, they are a functional replacement for locally extinct animals; lake Erie's native mussels and clams were largely rendered extinct by pollution, well before the hardier zebra got introduced. it has had a significant effect at cleaning the lake's water, creating habitats for fish fry, crustaceans, and gastropods, and serves as a food source for the previously endangered smallmouth bass and lake sturgeon, as well as migrating waterfowl.

[Firehawk]

Hippos are actually integrating remarkably well into the Amazon Rainforest ecosystem, taking the place of various megafauna that were wiped out thousands of years ago and filling a much needed ecological niche.

[philiphughes]

Mediterranean house gecko. They're in the North American south and thrive. They're considered beneficial because there are no other gecko species in most areas and they're nocturnal and eat small insects, of which there are more than enough, helping to keep populations in check.

[chitinskin]

I feel like the kudzu bug is also worth mentioning. As you can tell from its namesake, its host plant is the insanely invasive kudzu, which it is specially adapted to feeding on, it's probably one of the few things able to keep that plant in check, severely weakening its health long enough for other plants to have a fighting chance. What makes them so great at it is that the nymphs can only survive on a few legume species, their favorite being kudzu, so they usually stay around the kudzu infestation as much as possible, and won't leave unless their food completely dies off. Unfortunately, the adults feed on any other legume in its vicinity, especially if the kudzu dies out, and most other legumes can't handle its aggressive feeding, soybeans are hit particularly badly because they, along with kudzu, are the only plants kudzu bugs will lay eggs on, which means that while other legumes just have to wait for the adults to die out, soybean will be used to replenish the kudzu bug population, targeted nonstop until barely any is left. Plus, they invade houses during winter. People genuinely see it as a double edged sword due to its effectiveness in beating down kudzu, but it also just destroys soy.

[richardtodd]

A number of accidentally introduced parrot species live in South Florida and L.A. They don't seem to be having detrimental ecological effects, and in some cases depend on introduced plant species that aren't used by native animals. With the exception of the cold-hardy Monk Parakeets(aka Quaker Parrot), most are limited by climate and/or food sources from spreading across the continent. Some of these species are nearing extinction in their native lands while thriving in the U.S.

[hart-of-gold]

A video on successful introduced biological controls, such as the peacock bass in this video, could be interesting. A couple in Australia are dung bettles because there was no native animal that could clear cow pats (and reduce blowfly numbers).
And the moth that all but destroyed the prickly pear outbreak in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. The government gave out literal truckloads of moth eggs on cards for farmers (and forestry staff) to throw into cactus thickets and patches. The cactus went from completely choking forests and farms, to rarely seen in about 5 years.

[i.myellingtimber]

The positive doesnt outweigh the negative.

[theyeti]

An interesting story to add is about the South American hippos: when Pablo Escobar's empire collapsed, his private zoo was cleared with the exception of the hippo pool. Somehow, Pablo's hippos managed to escape and multiply rapidly in the Colombian jungle. Every now and then small Colombian villages are invaded by hippos. A recent study suggests that the hippos can be very beneficial to the South American ecosystem as they take up similar niches to the megafauna (toxodons, megatheriums, etc.) that went extinct.

[fishmob]

I agree invasive species is important to talk about. It's startling that you never even hear a remote mention of it anywhere, not even in children's programming.

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Another one is zebra mussels, who have been introduced to the Great Lakes of the US (as well as the Hudson River). It was an accidental introduction however through the discharge of contaminated cargo ship ballast water. While it has killed tens of thousands of birds in the Great Lakes region, zebra mussels are pretty efficient at filtering water, they can accumulate tons of pollutants and toxins. This has resulted in a decrease in pollution levels of the lakes. So while still invasive and deadly, they do at least have one positive aspect.

The dingo would also fit on this list. Since after the extinction of the Thylacine, they helped keep down the numbers of kangaroos, emus, and red deer. As well as large packs occassionally hunting the invasive cape buffalo.

[caseypittman]

1. 2. 3.
I would be careful with endorsing the idea that their presence is great. At the end of the day, invasive species are the greatest contributors of extinction after habitat destruction. The peacock bass could risk spreading if climate change keeps up. As for Tamarix, while it provides a nest for an endangered flycatcher, it degrades native wildlife habitat due to effects like soil salinization and water consumption when in large numbers. The real issue is we need to reintroduce the native trees the flycatcher uses and not interfere in nesting season. As for the green shore crab, I think a better solution would be to bring back the native predators and start developing a taste for green crab.
4. 5.
The tortoises I can understand, after all, while the tortoises on the other islands went extinct, their closest relatives phylogenetically are those tortoises, and the plants needed them. The beavers don't count, Eurasian beavers were present in the UK before their extirpation, they were just a reintroduced species.

I say all of this as someone who spent the better part of 6 months eradicating invasive species.